These 11 biggest plagiarism scandals of all time have helped their perpetrators make significant gains in their careers. Some of them have been labeled plagiarists wrongfully, some not so much, but the stain and doubt about the originality of their work remained until this day.
Plagiarism has been present throughout our history. It could be said that all of us are guilty of it since we use things like the wheel every day without so much giving a thought about our prehistoric ancestor who invented it. If he or she could get their hands on some royalties, it would be a very handsome sum.
Jokes aside, the difference between plagiarism and an original work can be a simple citation on the bottom of the page, crediting the source. In fact, this is the most common defense people accused of plagiarism use, that their intention wasn’t to steal others’ work, but they simply failed to properly cite their sources. It’s up to you whether you believe them or not.
As you can see from our list of plagiarism scandals, even some of the greatest people in history haven’t been above it. Even The Bard himself, Master Shakespeare, was accused of stealing plots and even entire verses from other writers. Just be careful saying that aloud in the presence of English majors, or else be prepared to defend your life. For the most part, literary critics agree that he in fact vastly improved the original works and have cleared him of any wrongdoings, but every now and then those accusations resurface.
With the rise of the Internet and digital age, it became worryingly easy to commit plagiarism. Fortunately, it also became very easy to discover it, as Melania Trump had a misfortune of learning recently. She hardly finished giving her speech when allegations of stealing it from Michele Obama came pouring down on her head. By morning, a score of comparative analysis was available on the net, triggering a frantic defense from the Trump campaign team. We decided to it leave off our list, because frankly, Trump scandals have become so numerous that they aren’t really scandals anymore. Maybe they should be included in the next edition of biggest royal scandals.
In order to create our list we used lists from Politico, Billboard, and Plagiarism Today. Some of the people on our list of biggest plagiarism scandals of all time are long dead, others are alive and still enjoy the fruits of their labor. The question remains how much of it is really theirs.
11. Helen Keller
Year: 1891
When she was just 11, Helen Keller had one of her stories published in The Goodson Gazette. The story, titled The Frost King, was soon pointed out by readers as a plagiarism of Margaret Canby’s Frost Fairies. Keller declined the accusations of stealing the work, claiming that she has no memory of ever reading or having been read Canby’s piece. For a while, the blame has been placed on her handlers, accused of taking advantage of deaf-blind girls. Today, it is believed that it was one of the first recorded cases of crypto-amnesia.
10. T.S. Eliot
Year: 1922
We are continuin our list of biggest plagiarism scandals of all time with scandal number 10 – Eliot’s poem The Waste Land is lauded as one of the most important poem of the 20th century, a deep lamentation for the world destroyed by the Great War. It became a hymn of the modernist literature and one of the most influential works ever written. It was certainly the best thing T. S. Elliot ever wrote. Only, he didn’t. At least, not all of it. In line with his famous quote “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal” Elliot behave very maturely and stole whatever line he liked. Mostly from an unknown poet named Madison Cawein and his poem titled Waste Land. Eliot even stole the title.
9. Martin Luther King Jr.
Year: 1955
It would seem that even Martin Luther King Jr. wasn’t above stealing other people’s work. In his Ph.D. dissertation, titled A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman, he “borrowed” heavily from another student, doing a similar research. The inquiry by the Boston University, launched in 1991, acknowledged this fact, but didn’t recommend stripping him of his title, which is a standard procedure in plagiarism cases, citing that the dissertation “makes an intelligent contribution to scholarship.”
8. Johnny Cash
Year: 1968
Folsom Prison Blues is one of the signature Johnny Cash songs. It reached number one spot on music charts in 1968 and to this day is considered one of the quintessential pieces of modern music. Only, Cash didn’t write the song. He stole it from Gordon Jenkins. Jenkins’ song Crescent City Blues was released in 1953 and the lyrics Cash used in his song are almost a verbatim copy of it. Jenkins sued Cash in the 1970s and won a settlement of $75,000. No wonder this one is on our list of biggest plagiarism scandals of all time, right?
7. Alex Haley
Year: 1978
Alex Haley is America’s best-selling African-American writer. His novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family has won him a Pulitzer Prize. The epic story, stretching from Africa to America and going back to the 18th century and Haley’s ancestor Kunta Kinta was an instant hit. It was also one of the most blatant cases of plagiarism in the literary world, as it was discovered by journalist Philip Nobile in 1993. Not only did Haley stole ruthlessly from a novel titled The African by Harold Courlander – including plot, characters, and even whole passages – he also faked majority of genealogical data he claimed were painstakingly gathered by himself. Haley was allowed to settle by the judge who presided over the lawsuit Courlander filed against him. Surprisingly enough, Haley’s literary heritage didn’t seem to suffer from this, since he remained popular as ever. He even got a Coast Guard ship named after him.
6. Joe Biden
Year: 1987
Long before Joe Biden became Vice-President we all know and love, he made an attempt for the real deal. Unfortunately, his presidential campaign in 1987 was cut short when accusations of plagiarism surfaced. It started with a speech Biden stole from a British politician Neil Kinnock, but soon his academic work came under attack as well. Joe had no other choice but to announce his withdrawal from the race. The democrats elected Michael Dukakis instead, who went to lose the election to the George H. W. Bush.
5. Vanilla Ice
Year: 1990
In 1991 Robert Van Winkle AKA Vanilla Ice released Ice Ice Baby and changed hip hop forever. It was the first hip-hop song to reach number one spot on the Billboard list and one of the first hip-hop songs that managed to become popular outside the United States. It didn’t take long for people to notice that song’s baseline sounded suspiciously similar to the one in Queen and David Bowie’s hit Under pressure. Vanilla Ice at first rejected the accusations of plagiarism, but ended up settling with both parties and added credit on all later editions of the song. A well-deserved place on the list of 11 biggest plagiarism scandals of all time.
4. Vladimir Putin
Year: 1997
Modern politicians love to brag about academic achievements in their official CVs. However, many of those are outright plagiarism or simply fake. Germany, Hungary, Serbia, all had their run-ins with top politicians being accused of plagiarizing their academic work. Even Vladimir Putin isn’t above it. His 1996 dissertation, titled Strategic Planning of Mineral Resources Replenishment at a Regional Level in Market Economy, seems to heavily borrow from William King and David Cleland’s book Strategic Planning and Policy. As far as we know, they still haven’t approached Mr. Putin and asked for royalties. Can’t imagine why…
3. Stephen Ambrose
Year: 2001
We are continuing our list of biggest plagiarism scandals of all time with the scandal number 3 – Stephen Ambrose was one of the most popular history writers in the world. His books were sold worldwide and he helped create Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers. When allegations of plagiarism began to appear in 2002, everyone was in shock. At first, they were limited to just one book, The Wild Blue. But then Forbes picked up a story and discovered that Ambrose used other people’s work in at least six of his book. Forbes even claimed that Ambrose Ph.D. dissertation had instances of material used without proper citation. It just goes to show that even the greatest of writers sometimes just can’t resist borrowing a well-written sentence.
Pixelbliss/Shutterstock.com
2. Jane Goodall
Year: 2013
A legendary scientist and one of the foremost gorilla expert Jane Goodall was set to publish her book Seeds of Hope in 2013. The release was delayed after no less than 12 instances of uncited work were discovered in the book. At one instance, Goodall even used a Wikipedia source verbatim, without acknowledging it. Her defense was that errors were made due to “chaotic method of note taking” and for the most part, people believed her. After all, the former baroness is 82. And now, let’s see the number one on our list of biggest plagiarism scandals of all time.
1. Amy Schumer
Year: 2016
We all used jokes we heard from other people and passed them as ours. However, when professional comedians do that, it is heavily frowned upon. Amy Schumer plagiarism scandal, the last one on our list of 11 biggest plagiarism scandals of all time, is still being discussed among her peers. Three of her female colleagues accused her of stealing their work and passing it as her own. Tammy Pescatelli, Kathleen Madigan, and Wendy Liebman all claim that Schumer ripped them off without even saying thank you. Pescatelli even went a few steps further and tweeted “at least Cosby knocked his victims out b4 he raped them”. Schumer vehemently denied all accusation and even vowed to take a polygraph test in her new show in order to prove her innocence. We are still waiting on it.
